Gun demons unleashing hell?

My dad used to tell me when I was a kid, never ever aim or point a gun at anyone – even if mine back then was just a plastic toy.

I really felt so bad after reading the news article about a father in Bacolod City who accidentally fired his gun and shot his 4-year-old son in the head.

As I read further through the story, I found out that another incident took place in Victorias City a month earlier where an 11-year-old boy was again accidentally shot dead by a neighbor.

Shocking as it was, in two months, there were two accidental killing of minors because of improper handling of guns. That’s why I couldn’t help but ask myself, what’s happening out there? Has everyone forgotten the basic rules our parents taught us when we were still kids, not to play with guns?

Most people can go ahead and blame it on the demons in it, but I put the blame on a simple word called "carelessness". Absolutely, these incidents of accidental killing would have not occurred if only the gun owners were extra-careful in handling them.

Come to think of it, two young and innocent lives were lost because of two FPJ and James Bond wannabes who thought they could play around with these metal toys with the so-called "demons" in it anytime they like. – RICHMOND MERCURIO, San Mateo, Rizal

Let’s not waste this opportunity

IT will be tragic loss of opportunity and threat to the prospects of a stable peace and prosperity if the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government will resume hostilities just because the Malaysian contingent in the International Monitoring Teams will be pulled out. The apprehension coming from both sides sends a signal that even now the peace that we enjoy today is so fragile everything and anything seemed to hinge only on the presence of the Malaysians.

We have a lot of things to thank the Malaysians for, but it is about time that the MILF and the government come to terms with the fact that the Malaysians will not be here for eternity. Furthermore, it is not for eternity that we hold on to a temporary peace atmosphere. This is not the kind of condition which assures stability. A ceasefire agreement is temporary and certainly this is not what makes an environment where capitalists want to invest and this is not the situation that makes for reconciliation among adversaries.

What mitigates for now is that the vast majority of our people in the areas of conflict are already weary of war. They want to go on and had long been prepared to forget and forgive the cruelties of war. We believe that the small items involved in the issue of ancestral domain are no longer valid issues that should hinder the peace accord that the Mindanaons are hankering for. The opportunity to reach a viable peace agreement is there. It will be tragic if we waste it now. – MIRIAM DAHUNOG, Miriamdahunog70@yahoo.com ,Cotabato City